Garrett Nussmeier Prospect Profile
Background
Garrett Nussmeier is famously the son of Doug and Christi Nussmeier (née Hebert). Doug was a former College QB at Idaho, and went on to play five years in the NFL. He has now been in coaching positions throughout football for 25 years and is now the Offensive Coordinator for the New Orleans Saints. Christi was also a cheerleader for the Saints. It goes without saying, then, that Nussmeier has an incredible athletic pedigree. Even in high school, it showed as he was the 11th QB, and 88th overall prospect in the 2021 high school class. He committed to play for Ed Orgeron and the LSU Tigers in May of 2020. He stayed true to the program through the transition of Ed O to Brian Kelly and even sat behind Jayden Daniels longer than a QB with his talent would have been expected to in today’s NIL era. 2024 was Nussmeier’s first year as a starter.
Physical Attributes
Let's get a qualifier out of the way. Nussmeier had an abdominal injury that limited him early in the year and eventually ended his season after LSU had nothing left to play for. Normally, I would err on the side of being more forgiving about what I saw, but I think it exposed something very concerning. If Nussmeier is not fully healthy, he does not have NFL athleticism in any part of his game. His arm is the bare minimum I would hope for out of a starting QB, and his elusiveness, quickness, and speed will make it hard for him to outrun DTs, much less the freakish EDGEs. Which will happen a lot, especially as a QB who LOOKS to take hits on the run.
Data and Tape Analysis
If you are unfamiliar with my QB radar charts, you can find more information here
Having already outlined Nussmeier's poor athleticism, hopefully, his tape compensates for that. It does not.
Nuss is great at one thing and one thing only. On any given play, if he can finish his drop, hit his back foot, and step into a clean pocket and throw with no more than one hitch before the release, the ball is almost always going to be on the money. Now, as we all know, that rarely ever happens in the NFL. A QB must be able to work through his reads and deliver an accurate ball to whichever receiver they can find open. A lot of his looks seem pre-determined, and he started to really pay for it later in the year when defenses clued in on it, or started to present more diguised coverages.
He is also not a very good runner on the mover, consistently dirting balls. When forced off platform, he tends to overthrow. Even before this past year, I was worried about his arm strength and ability to generate torque, and this year, with his abdominal injury, it was even more evident. He thinks he has an arm that can cash checks, but it consistently can't, and that might be the most damning part of his play, and why his advanced stats plummeted compared to last season.
His accuracy and completion numbers were inflated by an endless stream of screens and checkdowns, and he never seemed to take the right risk. For a guy who was asked to do a ton before the snap, and if anything coming into this year was supposed to have A+ command of the offense, I'm left wondering what, if anything he has to rely on.
Grade and Outlook
The only reason to draft Nussmeier at this point is if you had a very high grade on him coming into the season and think that his injury and the dysfunction of LSU hampered him in his final year. I was not, but I still see a backup QB who can start a game in a pinch and keep the offense moving over if he stays within himself. A modern NFL QB lacking size or athleticism needs A+ intangibles to have a shot; Nuss does not.
Grade: 4.5 (Late 4th / Early 5th Rounder)
